Recycling advocates concede that the larger deposits won't pay for new programs. But they say extending deposits to more than 5 billion containers annually will curb the waste that ends up in landfills.Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), who shepherded the legislation, said it is necessary "to make the program whole and make sure that recycling continues.""The money's been taken for other purposes," said Bob Achermann, executive director of the California/Nevada Soft Drink Assn. "It seems a bit disingenuous."In the end, it's always the consumer who foots the bill.

"The thing that was most important to him was his family," his wife said. Because of a 90-minute commute each evening, he did not return home until 8:30 p.m., when his youngest children were already asleep. So weekends were devoted to his wife and three children: Erica, 15, Jessica, 6, and Matthew, 4.

He loved to ride his bicycle long distances along the Shore.

An avid Notre Dame and Yankee fan, Mr. Wisniewski faithfully took his children to a Dad and Kids YMCA camp weekend in the Poconos each summer. He talked about computers at career day at his children's schools. He dressed up as a Ninja Turtle to entertain kids as part of a program that offered free fingerprinting to Howell's youth. He donated a week's vacation to a Blairstown camp for children with cancer.

Alan was my best friend and the most caring person I will ever know. Alan was a devoted father and had a tremendous faith in God. He will never be forgotten as he will always live in our loving memories and in our hearts.~Peter Piasentini,Howell, New Jersey

We will never forget those who lost their lives eight years ago today. Their memory will be cherished by those who loved them and live forever in the lives that they touched.

A Better Place

Cry for me no morethe many tears of sadnessMy time in this world was overand it came for me to pass.

Bring the photos of old timeand see them not with tear-filled eyesBut with eyes of joy and laughterand smile once more with me.

Know that I am in a better placeone without diseasewithout hatred and without deathThis kingdom I now call home.

I wait here for youWhen your time comes to passto ease the transitionfrom the old to the new.

Cry for me no moreRemember only the laughterFor I am in another realmAnd I wait to see you again.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Swimming has been prohibited at all Chatham oceanside beaches for the remainder of Labor Day weekend because of several great white sharks spotted off Monomoy Island, Harbor Master Stuart Smith said yesterday.

Gregory Skomal, a senior biologist and shark expert with the state Division of Marine Fisheries, said he spotted four great white sharks off Chatham's coast yesterday. That prompted beach officials at North Beach, Lighthouse Beach, South Beach and Hardings Beach in Chatham and Nauset Beach in Orleans to raise the red "no swimming" signs, much to the disappointment of beachgoers trying to enjoy the last big weekend of summer.

Kevin Tomany was taking pictures of his 14-year-old son surfing at Nauset Beach in Orleans yesterday morning when his 300-millimeter lens focused on something else entirely.

He said a sudden commotion in the water about 300 to 400 yards offshore turned out to be a shark. He was able to see, through his telephoto lens, half a shark protrude briefly from the water. It wasn't the back end, either.

"I saw jaws," he said.

Tomany, an orthopedic surgeon with a summer home in East Harwich, showed the photo to the beach patrol officials on Nauset Beach. He said they downloaded the image to send it to Skomal for identification. "I don't think there is any reason to panic," Tomany said. "It was clearly far away from any swimmers."

Tomany took his shark photo at about 11 a.m. The beach patrol officials saw no reason to close the beaches at that time. But hours later in the early afternoon, they decided to shut down the beach because more sharks were in the area, he said.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

One of the best scenes in the film Casablanca is the scene where the French National Anthem, La Marseillaise, is sung over the German song Watch on the Rhine. In the film, Victor Lazlo, played by Paul Henreid asks the band to play La Marseillaise and Rick (Humphrey Bogart) gives them a nod of approval.

Closeups are of the principle characters: Bogart, Henreid and Ingrid Bergman (Ilsa). The singer with the guitar, played by Mexican actress Corinna Mura, was uncredited in the film. Rick's jilted girlfriend, Yvonne, is shown with tears in her eyes and shouting "Vive la France!" at the end of the song. Yvonne was played by French actress Madeleine Lebeau who fled Paris with her Jewish husband in 1940, reaching the gateway city of Lisbon and eventually getting into the United States with temporary Canadian passports after being stuck in Mexico.

Before Casablanca, Lebeau had a small part in the Olivia de Havilland, Charles Boyer and Paulette Goddard 1941 film, Hold Back the Dawn, coincidentally about refugees trapped in Mexico trying to get into the United States during World War II.

And, of course, Claude Rains, as the Vichy Captain Louis Renault, steals almost every scene that he is in.

“This morning the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final note stating that unless we heard from them by eleven o'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you that no such understanding has been received and that consequently this country is at war with Germany.”- Neville ChamberlainWe shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and the oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.-Winston Churchill